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So, last year when I needed two teeth pulled I didn't have they money to get the job done, so the people at my dentist's office told me about this thing called Credit Card, which basically is like a credit account you open up to pay various medical procedures, and, in return you make monthly payments on them.  Their promotion is one year interest free so long as all the payments are made on time.

Well, admittedly, I guess I didn't read the damn thing close enough because I got a few days late on a single called and they charged interest.  So, from an account that I opened for just $700, they just added a $15 late fee and interest of $132.83.

f**k!

So... yeah, I was about around $320, now it's up to $467.83.  And get this, from my last statement..

As a result of payments received late on your account, the Penalty APR of 29.990% impacts your
account as follows:
Transactions after 08/17/11 : The Penalty APR will apply to these transactions. The Penalty APR
will apply indefinitely unless you make required payments by the Payment Due Date for six
consecutive billing cycles after the Effective Date.
Transactions on or before 08/17/11 : Current rates will continue to apply to these transactions.
However, if you become more than 60 days late on your account, the Penalty APR will apply to
these transactions as well.

So, I'm guess I'll get hit again for another interests charge if I'm late on another payment.

Man, this is so f**ked up. 

So, anyway, FAIR WARNING!  Do not use Care Credit, aka GEmoney!  They SUCK!

Unfortunately, most credit cards whack you with a late fee and jack up your interest to a disgustingly high rate if you are late on a single payment.  They used to hide this in the fine print.  Now they are required to mention it on every statement they send you.  If you are a long-time customer with a strong payment history, some credit card companies will reverse the fee and not raise your interest if you call them.  This happened to me once.  I had a credit card bill under a pile of other bills and simply forgot to pay it on time.  I called customer service and explained this to them and they didn't penalize me because I had been a card holder for like 10 years and always paid on time.

Well, their customer "service" is a bunch of robot-like dudes from India, so I doubt that'll get me anyway.  Ahh.. just gonna have to try and pay off the damn thing as quick as possible.

It's not just new customers. Right before the "reforms" went into effect a card I'd had since 1996 and had never had a late payment on suddenly annouced they were raising the interest rate from around 12% to 29%. They gave me the option of continuing with the card at the new rate or closing the account and paying off the balance at a rate of 15%. I had three days to contact them or the rate would automatically go to 29% whether I closed the account or not. Again, I had never had a late payment, always paid more than the minumum, and have a pretty good credit score. So the whole thing just seemed completely arbitrary. Needless to say I closed the account and called them to let know what fer.

Without mentioning any names, it was

BANK OF AMERICA.

 :hatred: :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :hatred:

 

One of my cards did something similar, but they only raised the rate from about 13% to about 16%, I think.  They told me if I "opted out," my rate would stay at 13% for a year and I could keep using the card, but at the end of the year, the card would be canceled and any remaining balance would be subject to the higher rate.  So I kept the card for the full year, then transferred the remaining balance to a lower rate card.  Screw them.  I prefer American Express anyway and use it 95% of the time these days.

Yeah, the wife and I are considering saying f*** it and get a consolidation loan. We have good credit, and I've heard that getting a debt consolidation loan can have a negative impact. But you know what? We already own a house, and I doubt it would hurt enough to prevent us from qualifying for a vehicle if we needed, so the hell with them. I'm so sick of credit card debt. It's one of the worst bottomless pits that anybody can embrace.